By Will Lee
Cathay Pacific Reduces Flights to Japan
Cathay Pacific and Hong Kong Express, its low-cost carrier, have more than their fair share as 150 flights to Japan are being forced to cancel between Feb. 3 and March 2.
Japan carried out the new travel restrictions and limited the number of flights from Hong Kong since January. It came after the announcement of China to reopen its border. The Japanese government has requested the passengers have been in mainland China in the last seven days and the travelers coming from Macau directly must take a Covid-19 test on arrival. However, the passengers coming from Hong Kong could skip a PCR test on arrival thus far.
As a result of the latest Japan’s travel restrictions, Cathay Pacific reduce its flight operation to 72 flights per week into Japan, 12-13 flights per week less than what was originally planned. Cathay Pacific said it will try to communicate with the relevant authorities to minimize the impact on its customers.
The affected flights include Hong Kong to Tokyo’s Narita Airport, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka. The passengers to Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka will be transferred to other available flights and the passengers to Nagoya will be transferred to Osaka flights, but the flights to Sapporo will operate as scheduled. The affected passengers can rebook their flight or get the refund.
In January, Hong Kong Express has already scraped the flights to Okinawa, Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and Tokyo’s Narita Airport in response to the travel rules.
Japan is one of Hongkongers’ favorite travel destinations as it ticks all the boxes. Since Hong Kong government lifted its travel restrictions in September, the travel demand has been seen an uptick in short-haul leisure destinations. By popular demand, Cathay Pacific has ramped up the flight frequencies to Sapporo and Fukuoka in December.
Light at the End of the Tunnel
After three years of the pandemic, Cathay Pacific finally saw a huge increase in travel demand in December, the airline carried a total of 801,088 passengers in December, an increase of 768.7% compare with same time last year and the passenger load factor reached 83.3%. But the pandemic is far from over, it recorded a 73.3 decrease compare to 2019. Cathay Pacific flew nearly 60 destinations by the end of 2022, doubling the 29 it flew to in January 2022.
“Looking ahead into 2023, we are excited to be firmly on the path to rebuilding Cathay Pacific and the Hong Kong international aviation hub. Nevertheless, challenges still remain and we are taking a measured and responsible approach to our rebuilding efforts.” Ronald Lam, Chief Executive Officer of the airline said.
Earlier, the Hong Kong’s flag carrier expected to record a consolidated loss of approximately $817 million to $894 million. The airline loss $702 million for the year ended Dec.31 2021.
